Canadian Composer:Wade Hemsworth

By: Emilio, Dave J. and Heather, With percussive accompaniment by

Brian

Albert Wade Hemsworth was born in Brantford Ontario on October 23, 1916, and died at the age of 85 on

January 19 2002.

As a Canadian folk singer and songwriter, he wrote a total of about 20 songs. Of these, three

of his most famous were “The Wild Goose”, “The Black Fly Song”, & the “Log Driver’s Waltz”.

Though he learned guitar and banjo in his youth, it wasn’t until he was in the Royal

Canadian Air Force, stationed in Newfoundland, that he discovered traditional

music.

In 1956, he recorded his first album, which was a mix of traditional and original music.

He released a songbook of his music in 1990, and finally recorded his second

album featuring 16 of the songs from it in 1995, at the age of 79.

During the 1960’s, Hemsworth’s music was performed by the McGarrigle sisters, and their band called Mountain City Four. Hemsworth himself would sometimes perform with the

group, though not as a member.

After his death in 2002, Adrienne Clarkson, the Governor General, said his songs were “so much a part of our folklore and

so familiar to us that we didn't realize anyone had written them.”

Dane Lanken, husband of Anna McGarrigle, said of Hemsworth: “Hemsworth creates

beautiful music, music that celebrates life lived fully, the fine old values of hard work and its rewards,

the wilderness and its myriad wonders. It is ... intensely Canadian music, created with a rawness and vitality that matches the wilderness it describes, captures it like a Tom

Thompson [sic] painting.”

A couple of Hemsworth’s songs were made into short films for the National Film Board of Canada, including “The Black Fly Song”, that was an animated video with him singing the

soundtrack.

Many of us grew up with another one of these films that used both real footage and

animation techniques, and the McGarrigle sisters on vocals.

Please raise your voices with our rendition of the “Log Driver’s Waltz”!

If you ask any girl from the parish aroundWhat pleases her most from her head to her toes

She'll say, "I'm not sure that it's business of yoursBut I do like to waltz with a log driver".

For he goes birling down a-down white waterThat's where the log driver learns to step lightly

It's birling down, a-down white waterA log driver's waltz pleases girls completely.

When the drive's nearly over, I like to go downAnd watch all the lads as they work on the

river

I know that come evening they'll be in the townAnd we all like to waltz with a log driver.

For he goes birling down a-down white waterThat's where the log driver learns to step lightly

It's birling down, a-down white waterA log driver's waltz pleases girls completely.

To please both my parents I've had to give wayAnd dance with the doctors and merchants and

lawyers

Their manners are fine but their feet are of clayFor there's none with the style of my log driver.

For he goes birling down a-down white waterThat's where the log driver learns to step lightly

It's birling down, a-down white waterA log driver's waltz pleases girls completely.

Now I've had my chances with all sorts of menBut none is so fine as my lad on the river

So when the drive's over, if he asks me againI think I will marry my log driver.

For he goes birling down a-down the white waterThat's where the log driver learns to step lightly

It's birling down, a-down white waterA log driver's waltz pleases girls completely.

It's birling down, a-down white waterA log driver's waltz pleases girls completely.

Thank you for participating in our presentation on Canadian Composer Wade

Hemsworth!